Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1875 — Happy Homes. [ARTICLE]

Happy Homes.

Human birds’ nests! How shall we make them pure, happy and attractive? Here is a question that pertains to the welfare of every human being, and, if rightly answered and practically illustrated, will prove a universal blessing. The little elf toddling across the floor for the first time receives applause which inspires it with courage to try again. Though such a “ little darling” as she is, the looks, words, acts, and surroundings have an untold influence upon her budding mind. Would you plant a delicate camelia in a dingy, dark coal-Cellar, among tne debris, and expect it to bloom? Yet many a human camelia breathes an atmosphere made up of elements fouler than coal and wood dust, and the darkness that surrounds it is the darkness of sin and misery. Can we wonder that it does not bloom—wonder that the poor, blunted, pinched, sin-frosted bud should droop, wither and fall, morally and physically? In those many homes from which springs a great part of our population, how numerous the men and women who have little more than their human form to distinguish them from

brutes! Yet they are God’s precious souls, though clothed in the filth and rags of blackest vices. Cannot the light qf moral and religious truth be made to penetrate the darkness that surrounds their souls, either by means of simple words which all can understand, by kindly visits from 1 philanthropic people or through public meetings conducted in some attractive way? Such people nepd to be taught the principles of morality just as children learn to walk—step by step. For a time their old habits will cling to them, weighing them down as in a deep mire; but, if kindly, rightly taught their moral sense, gradually awakening, will see the way, and the intellect, a willing Servant, will banish little by little the darkness and degradation of old habits, till, unburdened from the clogs of sin, they emerge into the sunny land of virtue. But turn from the lower strata of life to the homes of the educated, the affluent. What a lacking is there! Even with closed eyes and open ears we can learn much that pains us. First, there is the bad example set for little ones, who see and hear and learn before they are generally thought to have the necessary capacity! Does the mother’s reproof for impoliteness have its proper effect upon the child when the mother herself lacks good manners? Does the father’s advice to his boy not to smoke have the weight it should when his breath, which conveys the warning words, is redolent with the foul aroma? Are the children taught to be benevolent Arne to another, to speak the truth, to be cheerful and to love one another? More than all, do the parents make their children their study? Bach one is a volume, a complicated enigma in itself. What a variety of dispositions, tastes, talents, a few children in a household present! and they should be studied, directed, educated, each according to his or her highest natural capacity. Certainly they are not to be dealt with alike—the precocious, aspiring youth to be disciplined with the "sluggish mope; the conscientious, dutiful girl with the combative, self-willed, blustering boy. Who hut the parents are to discriminate carefully between the coarse and the fine, the lower and the higher, and accord praise, caution, sympathy or encouragement according to the occasion and the object? Furthermore, a sound mind cannot exist without a sound body. Good health is the foundation of all future usefulness. If the children have good health parents should study to retain it; if not, they should study to gain it. Fresh air, plenty of sleep, healthful food, exercise and cleanliness are indispensable to the happiness of the little ones—large ones as well. f Amusements form the principal occupation of children and should be directed, for at times they may unconsciously learn much at play. Every proper entertainment that can be provided should be, that they may not, when grown up, seek in the parlors, saloons and gaminghouses to satisfy a craving for, amusement. Children universally have a love of stories. Some of the most nervous and excitable may be quieted by this way of entertaining and instructing them. Often important truths, both moral and religious, may be implanted by reading. If the angel of love hovers over a household, administering golden truths and religious pearls, each tender bud that finds life there shall open in due time, adorned with a beauty of soul and fragrant with the graces of mind that shall make it meet for the future and eternal happy home. —Phrenological Journal.